The brilliant trick to eliminate the cochineal that ravages your plants

If your plants have a formidable enemy, it is mealybugs. Mealybugs, white or shelled, are parasites that attack the foliage and stems of your plants, preventing them from developing well. Discover how to eradicate mealybugs with Marseille soap and white vinegar.

Mealybugs are pests that can attack your indoor green plants, but also the garden plants, shrubs and fruit trees in your garden, thus harming their proper growth.

Under what conditions do mealybugs develop?

Scale insects love humidity and heat.  So, if you overspray your plant’s foliage or if your interior suffers from humidity or lack of ventilation, you run the risk of finding mealybugs on your plant.

Mealybugs are also common in spring or summer, even on garden plants, when temperatures are high and outdoor air humidity is higher.

What are the consequences for the plant?

Mealybugs are found inside leaves or on young shoots. It is the female mealybugs that attack plants. In fact, while male mealybugs have wings, females are immobile.  They therefore live attached to the plant where they lay their eggs.

These insects are stinging and sucking insects that feed on plant sap. By pumping out their sap, mealybugs weaken the plant and hinder its growth. Added to this is the risk that the plant develops   a black deposit that looks like soot, called sooty mold.   In fact, mealybugs secrete honeydew, a sweet depressant, which attracts fungi, but also different species of ants. This fungal disease is also dangerous for plants, because the black deposit that covers the foliage blocks the photosynthesis of your vegetation.

Scale insects are also harmful to fruit trees. In addition to destroying the harvest, they risk condemning their vegetation.

How to eradicate mealybugs?

• White vinegar and black soap

Put water in a spray bottle and add a teaspoon of liquid black soap and a teaspoon of white vinegar. Then spray on the infected parts of your plant, morning and evening. Avoid using this natural insecticide on your plant in the middle of the day, so as not to burn it with the sun. Repeat this operation daily until the scale insects are completely eradicated. Note that white vinegar is also effective against aphids and bindweed.

• Marseille soap

Dilute a tablespoon of liquid Marseille soap and a tablespoon of black liquid soap in half a litre of non-calcareous rainwater. After the soap has completely dissolved, add 2 tablespoons of 70° alcohol to your solution. Using a brush, apply this mixture to the scale insects’ shells so as not to attack your plant, especially if it is an orchid. Indeed, this insecticide could stain the flowers and burn some roots. After a few days, you will notice that the scale insects have dried up and crumble when you touch them. You will thus get rid of these pests without harming your plant. Note that you can very well  replace the two soaps with dishwashing liquid. The main thing is to have soapy water.

Another trick is to dissolve 50 g of Marseille soap flakes in 350 ml of hot water. Mix until the soap is completely dissolved. Then, put on gloves, soak a sponge in this soapy water, and wipe it over the infected leaves of your plant. This way, you will be able to eliminate the scale insects, but also the honeydew that they deposit on the foliage.

To make a natural cochineal spray

Mix in 1 liter of water, a teaspoon of 90° alcohol, a teaspoon of liquid black soap and a teaspoon of vegetable oil, such as olive oil. Spray this solution on the parts of your plant infested by mealybugs, once for 3 to 4 days. Black soap is also   a natural repellent against red spiders, scale insects and aphids.

Which plants are most affected by mealybugs?

Most indoor green plants are affected, such as succulents, orchids, lilacs, hibiscus, indoor roses, etc.

As for fruit trees, citrus trees are the most sensitive and vulnerable to scale insects.

Preventing a scale insect attack

These scale insects that attack your indoor plants also have their predators. To avoid a mealybug attack, remove your plant in May and place it in a bright location with partial shade. If mealybugs come to parasitize your plant, they will quickly be gobbled up by ladybugs, hoverflies and wasps.

These solutions will enable you to fight scale insects very effectively, to protect your indoor and outdoor plants, but also your vegetable garden or ornamental garden, from an invasion of these pest insects.